I am not going to take on John Guillaumier’s scholarly treatise. By now, he is already an acknowledged prolific writer and atheist militant but nobody can force conviction on the prejudiced or the foolish.

Thus, it is a waste of time to argue with one who refuses to listen. For this purpose, I leave the extensive bunch of scientists and priestly giants in the art of science who believe in God to rest in peace except one: biologist Steven Jay Gould who argued in his book Rocks of Ages that science and religion can comfortably co-exist as they operate in separate realms.

All these scientists recommend us to bow our head in front of God.

I would also refer him to a joint lecture by Jurgen Habermas and Pope Benedict XVI, delivered a few years ago.

The first said that the secular society should require a new understanding of religious convictions.  The second went a step further and spoke of the importance of genuine reason and authentic religion.

Their message is a far cry from Guillaumier’s quotation of Aristotle and co.: “When a religion consents to reason it begins to die.”

The slow but steady growth of the Church evident in the world at present conveys a picture of sweet bloom and flowering youth. The compatibility of faith and reason is a current concept of our time and is not archaic, misty and stale as the distant past.

What baffles me completely is why Guillaumier bothers to quote Kant, etc. who questioned or denied God’s existence when he himself does not agree with them and acknowledges that “God knows there is no shortage of shrines in Malta”.